It’s just glass, but its production changes everything for nuclear waste cleanup in Washington state. After decades of work by governors, lawmakers, attorneys general, and the Tri-Cities community to hold the federal government accountable, the U.S. Department of Energy is now converting radioactive waste left at the Hanford nuclear reservation into a stabilized substance that will no longer threaten the health of residents or Washington’s natural resources. Through court actions and negotiations, the Attorney General’s Office over the decades has played a central role in keeping the U.S. Department of Energy accountable for its obligation to cleanup Hanford. The waste treatment that began last week came 16 years after its original starting deadline, and the state might still have been waiting if not for generations of state elected leaders in Olympia and in Congress insisting on seeing the job done.

“This moment would not have been possible without many leaders in Washington state history, both Democrat and Republican, working to ensure the federal government honored its obligations to the people of Washington,” said Attorney General Nick Brown. “Even weeks before vitrification began, we were still fighting to make sure the federal government proceeded with this process. This milestone begins a new era for the Tri-Cities and Washington state as a whole.”